Crossword puzzles come easy to Palos Verdes Peninsula High student

When he was 12, Palos Verdes Peninsula High student David Steinberg sat down with his parents to watch "Wordplay," a 2006 documentary about crossword puzzles.

The very next day, charged with inspiration, he began crafting a puzzle by hand in his bedroom. David finished and sent it straight to Will Shortz, crossword editor of the New York Times and a prominent character in the movie.

Shortz rejected it but offered encouragement.

David created another puzzle and sent it to Shortz. It, too, was rejected. So were the next 14. But on the 17th try, he found success.

"I was thrilled," David remembers. "My parents were ecstatic."

It was a significant moment in not only David's life, but crossword history. In June 2011, at age 14, David became the fourth-youngest crossword creator ever to publish a puzzle in The New York Times - and the second-youngest under Shortz, who has held his position since 1993.

"It's astonishing, how much he knows," Shortz told the Daily Breeze.

Now 15, David has since published five more puzzles in The New York Times and has 16 in the pipeline. From the confines of his bedroom in the family's cramped apartment in Rancho Palos Verdes, David has also published puzzles in other publications, including the Los Angeles Times, Newsday and The Wall Street Journal, and has created his own e-book of crosswords, "Chromatics."

True to his age, David is a gangly teen with a voice that tends to crack. But even so, it's difficult not to forget when talking with him that he's 15, not 51.

Though fairly soft-spoken, his grasp of crossword-puzzle history is professorial.

With conversational ease, he expounds on the various styles of former crossword editors at The New York Times.

He'll tell you, for instance, that Eugene T. Maleska, predecessor of Shortz, was infamous for his harsh rejection letters.

"In general, he was not very well-liked," David said. "He was very literary - into literature and opera and that sort of thing."

Or that Margaret Farrar, The Times' first ever crossword editor, instituted rules that hold true today, such as the banishment of two-letter words.

"You don't ever see them now," he said.

Like many crossword creators, David gravitates toward computer science. And despite his love of words, English isn't his favorite subject.

As for his parents, to say they are committed to his education is an understatement.

Over the past decade, the family has hopped from city to city and state to state to find the right school for David. It's a luxury they can afford because David's father, Paul, a communications analyst at RAND Corp., has been able to telecommute.

They've gone from Irvine - where David attended elementary school - to Seattle, where he spent four years at the alma mater of Microsoft co-founders Paul Allen and Bill Gates. By the time David was a freshmen, he was excelling in computer science, robotics and Latin. The family decided to look for a school that was strong in all three areas.

"When you add Latin, that really limits the number of schools," said his mother, Karen Steinberg, who earned her doctorate in psychology from University of Pennsylvania. (She isn't currently practicing.)

After an exhaustive search that included schools in Washington and Oregon, they found Peninsula High, and returned to California.

In the fall of 2011, the three Steinbergs and their dog, a fluffy Keeshond named Skipper, moved into the apartment in Rancho Palos Verdes thinking it would be a temporary landing until their house in Seattle sold. It's still on the market, so they remain in the apartment.

David had published his first New York Times puzzle a few weeks before starting school at Peninsula High in fall of 2011. That summer, Principal Mitzi Cress - who keeps tabs on incoming students - came across a news story about a certain teenage crossword whiz named David Steinberg.

"I went to my registration person and said, `Do you think this could be the same kid?"'

It was.

"He's an incredibly personable young man," Cress continued. "It's always a joy to talk with him. He has so much knowledge."

For his part, Shortz - who receives 75 to 100 submissions a week - is impressed by David's breadth of knowledge and colorful use of words.

"In his last daily puzzle, one across was `Jiffy Lube,"' he said. "That's the first time that has ever been used in a puzzle."

Shortz was also struck by David's use of the word "Palinism." The clue? "Refudiate," referring to Sarah Palin's misuse of the word "repudiate" on a cable news show.

Yet another was "Maybe Baby," a 1957 Buddy Holly hit.

"How does he even know that?" Shortz marveled. "Those are just some examples. Just a lot of good vocabulary."

What's an example of bad vocabulary?

"Try to avoid stupid obscurity," Shortz said. "Like the name of a fly in Botswana. Those are things no one needs to know."

Themes are also important. Recently, David noted that the publication date of a puzzle in the Los Angeles Times would coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Oreo cookie. Many of his words contained the word "Oreo," such as "choreographer." He also made clever use of black-and-white spaces to evoke the physical likeness of the sandwich cookie.

Contrary to what you might think, crossword enthusiasts aren't exactly a graying group.

Although Shortz has published the work of only one kid younger than David - Ben Pall of New Jersey, who is four months David's junior - the puzzles of 23 teenage creators have graced the Times during his tenure.

Prior to Shortz's tenure, there had only been four in the history of The New York Times, which began printing crosswords in 1942. (The Times was among the last newspapers to publish a puzzle, holding out through the '20s and '30s on the belief that it was a passing fad.)

And yet Shortz doesn't seek out young puzzlists, though the dewy ones occasionally make note of it in their submissions.

"I'm happy to work with anybody I think has talent," he said.

Also, unlike many newspapers across the nation, The New York Times crossword puzzle seems to be making a smooth transition to the electronic age: The online version boasts about 50,000 subscribers, who pay $40 a year for access.

For creators, though, the big leagues of crosswording doesn't exactly come with big pay. The New York Times offers $200 per puzzle during the week, and $1,000 on Sundays.

"You really do work for it," David said.

But he doesn't do it for the money anyway. David just loves the craft - not only of creating, but solving.

"Last year I started solving The New York Times puzzle every day," he said. "My personal best is three minutes flat."

Apparently the skill isn't inherited. David recently entered a crossword tournament, and his parents - both of whom possess doctorate degrees - decided to participate.

"We weren't particularly good," Karen said.

"I wouldn't say that," David offered. "I'd say you were better than average."